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A thought by John C. Maxwell (2000-03-08) from
his book, Failing Forward: How to Makethe Most of Your Mistakes (p. 155). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click
on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Do you like people? Do you get along with people? Do you have problems with people? Listen, people are very important and it is very
important that you realize that. If you
don’t then you are going to have problems with living a fulfilling and
successful life. John said, “I was talking to some people a
couple of days ago, and they were complaining about not winning a business contract
that they had bid on. ‘It wasn't fair,’ one person told me. ‘All the people
involved knew each other, and we didn't have a chance. It's all politics.’ But
what he went on to describe wasn't politics. It was relationships.” He then said, “Authors Carole Hyatt and Linda
Gottlieb indicate that people who fail on the job commonly cite ‘office
politics’ as the reason for their failures…

A thought by John C. Maxwell (2000-03-08) from
his book, Failing Forward: How to Makethe Most of Your Mistakes (p. 142). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click
on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) In my reading, I come upon so many good thoughts
that it is hard to sometimes choose what to highlight. This Monday morning was one of those
times. But this one is the first one
that caught my attention. Maybe this
thought is for you. John says, “You need to determine if what
happened was really a failure. What you think is your fault may have been an
attempt to fulfill unrealistic expectations. It doesn't matter whether you
place them on yourself or someone else does; if a goal is unrealistic and you
miss it, that is not a failure.” We are so quick to want to play the blame game
even if it is with ourselves. Now it is
important to learn from our mistakes but a realistic evaluation is very
important. And many times unrealistic
expectations can be the problem. In other
wo…

A thought by John C. Maxwell (2000-03-08) from
his book, Failing Forward: How to Makethe Most of Your Mistakes (p. 114). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click
on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) I don’t think in any
way we could overestimate the event of Easter.
I mean Jesus was resurrected, He came back to life. That has made all the difference in our
lives, in our world and in our future.
But the reality is, we wouldn’t have had Easter without Good
Friday. He had to die first. Oh how we would like
to do away with the Good Friday’s of our life.
We hate the pain of adversity.
We in the middle of it have a pity party or even a life is not fair
lament. But the Good Friday’s of our
life can be our friend, not our enemy.
It is in those horrible days that we will go through that something can
be built into us that will make all of the difference in our lives if we chose
to let them help to make us better and not bitter and draw us closer to God. Now what if Jesus
would…

A thought by John C. Maxwell (2000-03-08) from
his book, Failing Forward: How to Makethe Most of Your Mistakes (p. 102). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click
on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) It is so easy to be
self-absorbed isn't it? John says, “Selfishness
ultimately hurts not only the people around a self-focused person, but also the
selfish person himself. It inclines the person toward failure because it keeps
him in a negative mental rut.” Man that
is the truth. I read so much of that on Facebook. So how do you get out
of this negative mental rut? John tells
of a response by Dr. Karl Menninger when asked, “‘What would you advise a
person to do if he felt a nervous breakdown coming on?’ Most people expected
him to reply, ‘Consult a psychiatrist,’ since that was his profession. To their
astonishment, Menninger replied, ‘Lock up your house, go across the railway
tracks, find someone in need, and do something to help that person.’” John then says, “Developing
a…

A thought by John C. Maxwell (2000-03-08) from
his book, Failing Forward: How to Makethe Most of Your Mistakes (p. 84). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click
on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) OK, I can see that I
need to take care of some things in my past to not let them hold me back to not
let them be my total focus but how do I do that? What do I do?
John gives some good
guidelines in this. He says, “Take time
right now to list the negative events from your past that may be holding you
hostage: For each item you listed, go through the following process. 1.
Acknowledge the pain. 2. Grieve the loss. 3. Forgive the person. 4. Forgive
yourself. 5. Determine to release the event and move on. If you are having a
hard time because you're holding grudges, talk to God about the issue and ask
Him to help you through the process. No matter how difficult this becomes,
persevere through it. You will not be able to be your best today until you say
good-bye to yesterday.” No…

Have you come to realize that yet? When my father was killed in a truck accident
it colored my life for a long time but finally the pain turned to good memories
that I hold onto. I somewhere somehow
let go of the pain. John says, “Someone who is unable to get over
previous hurts and failures is held hostage by the past. The baggage he carries
around makes it very difficult for him to move forward. In fact, in more than
thirty years of working with people, I have yet to meet a successful person who
continually dwelt on his past difficulties.” Have you ever gotten in a car and found the
driver looking continually in the rear view mirror? He is totally looking at where he has come
from. Of course not. If it happened you would immediately want him
to stop and get out. But so many…

A thought by John C. Maxwell (2000-03-08) from
his book, Failing Forward: How to Makethe Most of Your Mistakes (p. 67). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click
on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) I am overweight. That is a problem. I am short.
That is a fact of life. There is
nothing that I can do to get taller. I
will never be taller than what I am today but I can get smaller. I have this week already lost 3 lbs. I at one time weighed 260 lbs. I had to do something about that and I eventually
got down to 210 lbs. Now through
different situations I had gotten back up to 223 lbs. and decided that I wanted
to do something about that. So that is a
problem that I am striving to solve. Now John says, “Some
people get into trouble because they focus their attention on things beyond
their control.” Somebody leaves you. They may die or they may decide that they don’t
want to be married anymore so you go to pieces and your focus becomes something
beyond your control. He…

A thought by John C. Maxwell (2000-03-08) from
his book, Failing Forward: How to Make the Most of Your Mistakes (p. 54). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click
on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) I have been having a
problem with gaining the weight that I have been successful at losing over the
years. I had thrown out all my XXL clothes
but the XL clothes that I had kept were starting to get tight so I went out and
bought some larger clothes again and by doing that I had just accepted the fact
that I was destined to be overweight until last night I stopped and took
responsibility to figure out what I needed to do. I decided to do something about the problem
other than buying new clothes. So I sat
down and started thinking and talking with my wife and we came up with a new
plan and I started doing it today.
Inside of me I decided to take responsibility not to just accept that I couldn’t
do anything about it. John quoted Michael
Korda who is the editor in chief of Simon …

A thought by John C. Maxwell (2000-03-08) from
his book, Failing Forward: How to Makethe Most of Your Mistakes (p. 52). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click
on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Have you found that
true? You have a choice to make and it
is a critical choice. Do I go right or left? As John says, “It's an
opportunity to take the right action, learn from your mistakes, and begin
again.” But so many choose the
self-pity road. I can never do anything
right. Everything is against me. I can’t believe this is happening to me. And they keep on the failure freeway and never
get off of it until they decide to change the way they think and then do something about it. John shares the “Autobiography
in Five Short Chapters” by Portia Nelson, which “describes the process of
exiting the failure freeway: Chapter 1. I walk down the street. There is a deep
hole in the sidewalk. I fall in. I am lost. I am helpless. It isn't my fault.
It takes forever to find a …

A thought by John C. Maxwell (2000-03-08) from
his book, Failing Forward: How to Makethe Most of Your Mistakes (p. 48). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click
on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Wow, that is the truth. John then says, “People are prone to ruts.
And anyone who has been conditioned to think failure is his fate has an
especially hard time exiting the failure freeway.” I started doing something this past year that I
really enjoy doing. I take and pickup my
wife, Margaret from her work every work day.
That gives us extra time together and also helps her plan her day and
check off all her emails at the end of her day.
It also means we spend a lot of time on the LA Freeway system. Anywhere from 30 minutes to over an
hour. Now if I had found a route and
decided to stick with it every day coming and going I would spend even more
time but I have a helper called Waze that sets and changes how I go each
time. It gives me the best and fastest
route and it is alm…

A thought by John C. Maxwell (2000-03-08) from
his book, Failing Forward: How to Makethe Most of Your Mistakes (p. 41). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click
on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) I’m sure all of us
have something that we are afraid of and we'd like to conquer it.
For some it might be a snake or a spider and those can be annoying but
for the most part that fear doesn’t keep us from living life to its fullest. You just strive to keep away from them. But others have fears
that keep them from living life to the level that God has for them and they
want to somehow conquer their fears. For some it might be the fear of their health. They know they need to exercise or eat right or check their blood sugar. And as John says, “You can't wait for
motivation to get you going.” But in doing this John says, “Motivation is not going to strike you like lightning. And
motivation is not something that someone else —nurse, doctor, family member—
can bestow or force…

A thought by John C. Maxwell (2000-03-08) from
his book, Failing Forward: How to Makethe Most of Your Mistakes (p. 27). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click
on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Now rejection hurts.
It really does especially if you did something to cause it. We have all experienced it but how we deal
with it is the key to really living the life God has for us. John says on this, “People
who don't give up keep trying because they don't base their self-worth on their
performance. Instead, they have an internally based self-image. Rather than
say, ‘I am a failure,’ they say, ‘I missed that one,’ or ‘I made a mistake.’
Psychologist Martin E. Seligman believes we have two choices when we fail: We
can internalize or externalize our failure. ‘People who blame themselves when
they fail . . . think they are worthless, talentless, unlovable,’ says
Seligman. ‘People who blame external events do not lose self-esteem when bad
events strike.’ To keep the rig…

A thought by John C. Maxwell (2000-03-08) from
his book, Failing Forward: How to Makethe Most of Your Mistakes (p. 18). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click
on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)Think about this. John continues, “People don't work hard
because, in their conceit, they imagine they'll succeed without ever making an
effort. Most people believe that they'll wake up some day and find themselves
rich. Actually, they've got it half right, because eventually they wake up.” I had someone
yesterday try to get me involved in some get rich scheme. Some people think that is the way God
works. No, he works through people
working. He gives us abilities and then
opportunities. And then we work hard and
smart. Work is God’s plan. But we sit around and
wait on God to meet our needs. And he is
waiting on us to do our part. Now is it easy.No but it can be exciting and challenging and
rewarding. John then says, “Each of us
has to make a choice. Are we goin…

We all make mistakes. But the key is what we do with them. Do we keep making the same ones or do we
grow. John found these Rules for Being Human. He said, “I
think the list describes well the state we're in as people: Rule #1: You will
learn lessons. Rule #2: There are no mistakes— only lessons. Rule #3: A lesson
is repeated until it is learned. Rule #4: If you don't learn the easy lessons,
they get harder. (Pain is one way the universe gets your attention.) Rule #5:
You'll know you've learned a lesson when your actions change.” We’re all going to make mistakes, we’re all going
to fail but do we learn from it and change.
That is up to us. John also says, “Every person's life is filled
with errors and negative experiences. But know this: Errors become mistak…

A thought by John C. Maxwell (2000-03-08) from
his book, Failing Forward: How to Makethe Most of Your Mistakes(p. 15). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. I read this book back in 2008 when it came out
and found it very beneficial and practical then picked it up again and found it to be the same in 2015.
Mistakes can be enemies for us in so many ways but they also can be very
close friends. It is all in our
perspective and response to them. John says, “You are the only person who can
really label what you do a failure.” And
that makes the difference in whether it is your friend or your enemy. John says, “According to Tulane University business
professor Lisa Amos, the average for entrepreneurs is 3.8 failures before they
finally make it in business. They are not deterred by problems, mistakes, or
errors. Why? Because they don't see setbacks as failures. They recognize that
three steps forward and two steps back still equals one step forward. And as a
result, they overcome the average…